Projects | Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Probing Atmospheric Nanoplastics: An Unrecognized Urban Source of Airborne Particles

Lead Institution

Purdue University

Principal Investigator

Alexander Laskin

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

fragments of microplastic or larger plastic debris discharged into terrestrial and aquatic environments, while atmospheric occurrence of EnvNP is solely attributed to aerosolization by wind and other…

The thiol redox proteome dynamics in Arabidopsis thaliana in response to light

Lead Institution

Universidad de Sevilla

Principal Investigator

Francisco Javier Cejudo

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant performance relies on regulatory mechanisms that allow the rapid adaptation of their metabolism to light, the key stimulus for growth and development of photosynthetic organisms. Thus, dark…

Unraveling the biochemical and metabolic networks controlling bacterial cellulose biosynthesis

Lead Institution

University of Kentucky

Principal Investigator

Kendall Corbin

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Synthetic biology is a rapidly evolving field that uses novel engineering approaches to enhance the capabilities of organisms. Cellulose producing bacteria with commercial value, such as many in the…

Computational Mechanistic Studies of Methyl-coenzyme M Reductase Enzyme

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Bojana Ginovska

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after CO2, which accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it is by far the largest constituent of natural gas deposits. Methyl…

Identification of Individual Particle Chemical Composition, Morphology, and Ice Nucleation Properties in the Arctic

Lead Institution

University of Michigan

Principal Investigator

Kerri Pratt

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The proposed project will address critical gaps in our understanding of the Arctic aerosol chemical composition, mixing state, sources, and ice nucleation properties through chemical imaging and ice…

Mass-spectral 'fingerprinting' of technical and native lignin substrates for improved biological funneling and enzyme discovery

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Steven Hallam

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignin, composed of phenylpropanoid monomers connected by C-C and C-O-C (β-O-4 ether) bonds is the most energy dense polymer in lignocellulosic biomass and a potentially valuable source of aromatic…

Structural and functional dissection of a cell cycle chromatin switch in green algae

Lead Institution

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Principal Investigator

James Umen

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The long-term goal of this project is to understand the dynamic genetic programming which underlies cell growth and proliferation in green algae. This project addresses a long-standing enigma of how…

Understanding Product Selectivity of Monoterpene Synthases Using Atomistic Simulations

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Hoshin Kim

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Monoterpene synthases (MTSs) catalyze the biosynthesis of monoterpenes, which play a pivotal role in plant-plant communications as well as key ingredients for many industrial applications including…

Atomistic Simulations of the Discriminatory Power of Desaturase

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Marcel Baer

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to use EMSL supercomputing resources to gain a molecular level understanding of how substrate binding, electron, and proton delivery are controlled by the desaturase metalloenzyme…

Towards Aerosol-Ice Formation Closure – Chemical Imaging Investigation of Aerosol and Ice Nucleating Particles

Lead Institution

State University of New York at Stony Brook

Principal Investigator

Daniel Knopf

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Prediction of ice nucleating particle (INP) number concentrations from ambient aerosol particles represents an urgent and challenging issue when simulating cloud processes in climate models. A recent…

Deciphering plant-plant, plant-microbe, and plant-soil interactions driving biological invasion in a southwestern desert grassland

Lead Institution

University of Arizona

Principal Investigator

Malak Tfaily

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant invasion is a major component of global change, leading to environmental transformations that alter ecosystem services and associated biogeochemical cycles. The overarching goal of this project…

Deciphering the structure and function of the last unknown major plant organelle - Plasmodesma

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Michael Knoblauch

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant tissues exhibit a symplasmic organization; the individual protoplasts are connected to their neighbors via cytoplasmic bridges that extend through pores in the cell walls. These bridges may…

Molecular controls of microbial nitrogen use efficiency in agricultural soils

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service

Principal Investigator

Amisha Poret-Peterson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Microbial nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) reflects the partitioning of organic N taken up between N incorporation into microbial biomass (growth) and N recycled to the environment as inorganic N …

Inferring Kinetic Models for Large-Scale Biochemical Networks

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Herbert Sauro

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Mechanistic models of cell networks that accurately predict changes in input-output dynamics and outcomes upon perturbation have the potential to facilitate a greater understanding of the…

Plant proteome structure-function and pKa prediction augmented with environmental considerations, Deep Learning and integrated datasets

Lead Institution

Johns Hopkins University

Principal Investigator

Carolyn Fitch

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

One of the goals of computational biology is to model cellular behavior. At the crux of this endeavor is the need to understand proteins in their biologically relevant environmental context. In other…

Revealing oxalate-mediated carbon flow through plant-fungal-bacterial rhizosphere interactions as part of a globally important carbon-sequestering biogeochemical process

Lead Institution

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Buck Hanson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Bacterial and fungal interactions in plant rhizospheres impart a myriad of beneficial functions to plant and soil health as well as playing important roles in biogeochemical cycling. However, the…

Determination of the Molecular Architecture and Temporal Dynamics that Drive Microbial Lignocellulose Degradation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Song Feng

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

In order to link phenotypic outcomes to molecular determinants, we have developed an integrated functional profiling platform, PhenoProfiling, that pairs activity-based probes (ABPs) with…

The knowns against the unknowns: Photosynthesis gene discovery through multi-omic survey of photosynthetic mutants during light stress

Lead Institution

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Setsuko Wakao

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

To advance genome-based understanding of photosynthesis, we have generated a high-quality, phenotyped photosynthesis mutant library in the model unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii…

Numerical Modeling of Hydrologic Exchange and Biogeochemistry in Dynamic Rivers

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Timothy Scheibe

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The River Corridor SFA project (https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/river-corridor) uses a ModEx (integrated models and experiments) approach to study hydrologic exchange fluxes (HEFs) between river…

Disentangling the impacts of particle mixing state on ice nucleation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Susannah Burrows

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Atmospheric ice nucleating particles (INPs) are rare particles required to initiate freezing in clouds at temperatures warmer than ca. -38°C, and therefore can have significant impacts on weather and…